Oh you guys, that's not a wreck. What you see here is a photo taken behind the Highland Park plant where Ford was experimenting with "on the fly" delivery methods. Henry Ford got the idea after seeing mail delivered from a moving train.

My A.F. layout has the mail bag stand and mail car and it's great fun to watch the bag get snatched from the post while the train is on the move and even more fun to try and find the mail bag after it gets tossed from the moving mail car !

I'm not sure where the photos were taken. The person that had them originally thought they were taken in Havre, MT, but the mountains seemed to indicate that it was somewhere else. Another photo in the set was apparently taken in Leavenworth/Cashmere, WA which is perhaps a better possibility? On one building I could read "Warehouse No 5." Any information would be appreciated.

Looks like two piece spindles. I bet someone spun the wheel for the camera.Cameras were not that easy to set up back then. Unless it was a staged event that was for a safety event, but I don't think so.

At the time this photo was taken, photograpy was no longer a difficult, time consuming process, reserve only for the professional photographer.

The Kodak Brownie Box Camera, was the Model T of photography. Introduced in 1900, it made taking high quality pictures easy for the common man. These photos were probably taken by a brownie. Jim Patrick.

A long time historian of my local town told me of just such a meeting between a T and a M K T "Katy Flyer". Seems this well known local family had come to town to do their weekly shopping and when approaching the tracks, observed the tail end of a westbound train pass the crossing. There was a string of empties setting on a siding that obscured a eastbound "Flyer". The driver made the mistake of proceding blindly onto the tracks. End result was the same for the T in the picture and five members (an entire family) gone from this Earth.

Well, I think I recognize the scene. The train cars are probably being loaded with apples. Cashmere was a huge apple producing are by 1913. I spent the summers as a kid in the Wenatchee Valley, and in particular my relatives had apple and pear orchards in the area of Cashmere, WA. I think the photograph was taken in Cashmere WA. as a child I can remember going past the small white buildings in the background, which by the 1960s were in a very dilapidated and abandoned condition (just perfect for a bunch of small kids to poke through). Train cars on that siding would be loaded with apples and pears. I believe the top photograph (with the large hill in the background) is looking down the main track toward Wenatchee Washington. I believe the other photograph (with a smaller hill) is looking up the mainline toward Dryden, Peshastin and Leavenworth WA. The photograph obviously wasn't taken at Leavenworth because the hills there are much different, even though the distance is only a short ways, because Leavenworth abuts the Cascades and mountains around Leavenworth are far more steep and jagged. I believe downtown Cashmere is just off to the left side of the top first picture, and that the Cashmere fruit growers cooperative was/is located on the other side of the tracks from the little white buildings. I'm in Arizona now, but next time I go to Cashmere I will take a look at this area to see if I can do a "then and now" photograph. I suspect the car was hit while it was parked there was hit by a train as itwent down the mainline. As we learned when we were kids, you don't want to go too close to the train, as those trains were loaded with a lot a lumberform the area swa mills (now long closed), and the boards would shake loose and the train went down the tracks, and the boards could stick out 20 or 30 feet as the train went by, and could take your head off. This was a great area for a young kid to explore, and pick up model T and model a parts for free. The Wenatchee River runs right through Cashmere, and the river banks always had a lot of junk cars littering them. Also the washes on the hills had all sorts of rusty thing in them. I found in junked 1913 T just down the road from Cashmere, it still had the sidelights on it, and one of the first cars I wanted, but did not get was a 1929 model a coupe for $25. Rollie.

It's odd when you consider what was damaged and what wasn't. Altho' you can't see the engine side of that brass radiator, viewing from the front side it looks perfect! Also, it would appear that leather might be stronger than iron and steel. Look at the leather strap "shock absorbers" both still intact and attached to the frame and the rear axel!

To those of you that aren't interested in the non-t part of the update, I apologize in advance....

I had a chance to drive through Cashmere and Leavenworth Washington about a week ago and took some pictures in Cashmere to show the possible location of the wrecked Model T in the original post. Although it looks like the buildings and tracks have changed somewhat, it does look like Cashmere is a good match for the original picture. Among the differences noted, it looks like the building showing above the top of the rail cars was extended toward the mountain some time later.

Also, here is a current picture of the depot building that Art posted which is on the other side of the tracks from the buildings in the two pictures above.

In my internet browser, and not sure if it works with any other, I can left click the picture and move it, superimposing it over the original picture. There is an offset jog on the mountain in the distance: it's the same place.

Twenty years ago, I bought a large "coffee table book" called America Then and Now. I've always had an interest in this type of thing. It is a book full of before and after photo's as you've done above. Thanks John.

Hey John Carter: Thanks for going there, great that you took the "then and now" pictures of the scene of the wreck. That's just how I remembered it looking 40 years ago. Now, if I could only remember where I put my glasses down.... Rollie.

Not wanting to highjack but it is related.How would you all go about researching a train wreck as far a newspaper artical or something? My grandpal was driveing a tractor trailer and was hit by a high speed steam passenger train.It went from DC to somewhere way south of here.Cant remember the name,Something Express or Limited.Had to be in the late 30's 40's maby.It happened in Gastonia.And yes,I have googled and dogpiled it to death and aint found anything.

Well fixing a car after it was hit by a train can be done.Several years ago a friend was looking over some cars that a fellow down the road had and a recent 1 they hauled in was a rusted out 34 ford that was bowed up in the middle and such and it was obvious it was wrecked years ago.He ask first what happened to it,they said it was hit by a train,he then ask what the ----- they was going to do with it.Well fix it.Duh. Turns out a couple years ago the man turned down a huge price for the street rod he built with that crumpled up body.